News of the Western Belize Recreational Area, about 500 square miles of waterfalls, caves, Mayan ruins and pyramids, Belize Alps, foothills, ranches and farms, tourist accomodations of all types and description, tours and expeditions for vacationers and visitors. Even a small growing expatriate retirement group of people from different countries. In Belize, this is where it is happening, all the things that are fun and even serious, with a climate of ETERNAL SPRING.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The new government report card, dropped 5 points from 65% to 60%, this week. UDP REPORT CARD DROPS TO 60%

The issue this week, was the BTL, or Belize Telecommunications Company lack of internet services to our section of Santa Elena Town for business purposes. We checked again this week,( end of April ) and have been doing so for the last 13 years two or three times a year. Got the same LIES and DECEIT from the local BTL Office customer service. BTL is NOT offering high speed internet service yet to our section of Santa Elena Town, but will be in about two months. This charade and parade of lies has been going on under numerous owners. Of which the UDP Government of Belize are the current owners and operators of the BTL internet service. We don't like being lied to! Nor do we like the inefficient management failures of socialist appointed political party Boards of Directors under whichever political party holds the reins of the government and control of the treasury. This is a FARCE, meant to only enrich political party apparatiks currently, in our opinion. Looting and plundering. Instead of delivering services badly needed to increase economic growth. __________________________________________

The story behind the story of loss of 5 percentage points on the UDP government report card, is because we were running tests all week, trying to get our Chicago Broker Desktop software program working. We can use their Web Based program to initiate cash derivative trades, but cannot close the more complex types of trades using this program and have been told over and over again, that we need their DESKTOP SOFTWARE. We have downloaded it numerous times, but cannot get it to work. Our local ISP is SMART of VERIZON WIRELESS, who it seems from the PING TESTS are in turn subcontracting through our local Belize Telecommunications Company according to the test results. The following is the results over several days. We are at our wits end trying to develop an offshore trading financial business, with the poor quality of internet service we are getting. ______________________________________

Test Results:To: Jake Arnold Tech Support, THINKORSWIM.COM

I'll contact them, thank you for the information. I use the web based platform easy enough. Just the desktop I cannot use.

Member FINRA | SIPC | NFA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

Member FINRA | SIPC | NFA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

First it seemed I didn't have JAVA on my computer, though I use JAVA programs. But with electricity blackouts, I recently had my computer fixed after the electricity company burned out my power supply and mother board, so I don't know what I have on here anymore. After downloading JAVA, I went to your PINGTEST.NET for broadband signal strength. Seems our broadband here in Western Belize comes from Tegucigalpa in Honduras 250 miles away. I am getting a ping of 1184 ms Download speed is .12 Mbps and UPload speed is .05 Mbps. Night time rating. Out of a five star rating, my SMART broadband service only has the lowest one star rating.

Member FINRA | SIPC | NFA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

Member SIPC | FINRA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

Member SIPC | FINRA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

Thank you Abigail. That was a slight improvement. Now I know I actually have some file folders on my desktop, by right clicking. There are only 3 yellow folder files. None labeled Usergui What I have is .install4j and jrs and suit

Member FINRA | SIPC | NFA trademark, all rights reserved ---------------------------------- This e-mail is sent by a financial firm and contains information that may be privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and notify us immediately.

I'm D11329407 currently web based paper trading. That is working okay, but have difficulty in closing out Vertical Credit Spreads.

I downloaded several times, your desktop software, but all I seem to get is the icon on my screen and when I click on it, all I get is an auto update box, which says PROXY and EXIT message. There is nothing behind it. I am certainly not getting the equivalent of your web based program.

I'm only guessing that I must need to unzip the downloads or something?

Belize is your typical two political party SOCIALIST STATE, like much of the British Caribbean. ALL the tax revenues go to provide the socialist equivalent of BIG OMNIPOTENT government. We don’t have the POLITBORO of the communist one party states. What we substitute is the CABINET management team instead of a POLITBORO. The only difference is in the name. ALL the government tax revenues pay for the biggest industry in the whole country. BIG SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT. The socialist part is because whichever political party gets to control the government ( that is the democratic choice ) all the family, friends, relatives and party hacks take over the government jobs from the party before. You sort of think with the rise in education levels, we would get more efficient and a better working government over time. Doesn’t work that way in practice though, this is the one thing we have in common with other socialist states. Infra-structure is done by foreign loans, grants, NGO’s, visiting US Army Corp of engineers training battalions, church groups, and other machinations outside of the tax revenue base. The latter used exclusively to provide jobs to all and sundry with connections to the political party in power. This is the debtor structure that governs socialism. Provide a lot of jobs mostly is the idea; this the biggest industry in the country and thus what small part of improvements in life style come along, are usually from the small capital base in the country of private enterprise. It is not much, because Belize is an agrarian country. This makes Belize a wonderful place to live because of simple self sustainability. The climate makes it all possible. There is some tourism, but that is limited. Agro processing is starting and that is going to help a tiny bit. We have no light manufacturing and unlikely to do so because of the tax theories of socialism. The inefficient bureaucracy expands according to the foreign loan borrowing capacity of the country, providing secure jobs. The tendency in one party socialist states, is to tax, license and bury in bureaucratic expensive red tape, small private enterprise into oblivion. That more or less is the same in Belize, though we only have a one party state, done by elections one at a time. The National debt is running in a range between 76% and 127% of GDP over the last 15 years and seems ordained to remain in this range. Paying for infra-structure work is becoming more and more difficult to get more loans for, and our BONDS are JUNK BONDS, though for some reason we have not yet defaulted? We probably should, to give the foolish capitalists a lesson in lending to Socialist Belize. Life in a simple agrarian society is still good though. When the taxes get too high, people simply have the choice of stopping buying. Thankfully, school gardens are the norm in our school system now. We can at least feed ourselves. If you like the simple rural country lifestyle, living in Belize is very good though.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Well the dust from the first two years of UDP management has settled. They have proven they can spend money wisely and managed well. That is on the CREDIT SIDE. On the down side, they did it by increasing the NATIONAL DEBT TO GDP RATIO from 76% of GDP to 107% of GDP and Barrow has announced plans to increase the national debt to 110 % of GDP or more? While I applaud the way they have managed money, I certainly don’t think it is the deciding factor, as by EU rules, they were only allowed to borrow up to 3% of GDP in the best of times and they borrowed 31% of GDP so far to date. That is 28% more borrowing than they were allowed, to provide good governance. The rest of the good governance was meant to come from imagination, innovation, re-structuring and so forth. This they have failed miserably in. That means their leadership is poor. Their fiscal and government management policies bankrupt. As a SWING VOTER I certainly feel more comfortable under the current ambience and atmosphere of UDP governance. The smell, smoke and overwhelming sense of PUP corruption is more or less gone. The management and size of government organization as we know by the COST, leaves me in HORROR! A feeling of being a RAPE VICTIM. We have roughly $650 million a year to run this country and the UDP cannot do it, so far. Musa in his last five years did it with severe austerity true, but he did it and reduced his early first term mistakes from 127% of GDP debt ratio to 76% of GDP when the UDP took over. On weighing the results, I have to say I’m definitely leaning toward the PUP for the next election. Unless BARROW can show the leadership necessary to make our nation self sufficient financially, he is going to have to go. It’s a case of the LEAST perilous party to our economy and life blood. So where do the UDP go from here? That is the question and they have two years to do it.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Whoever the Cabinet Minister of Lands is? Just cost the UDP Government report card rating, a penalty of 5 points. Reducing the UDP government approval rating from 70% to 65%. The story behind the story is; that the wife made her monthly trip by bus to Belmopan Lands Department to pick up her title to her DFC house she bought at auction. She had to surrender her LEASE CERTICATE and paid some hundreds over $2000 for the vandalized shell and small house lot in Hillview. It's about 50 ft xy 75 ft. I've lost track of time here, but at least three months ago! Each trip to far-a-way Belmopan, the Lands Department clerks tell her the same story. Your title is on the Cabinet Minister of Lands desk, but he has not signed it yet. That was at least three months ago, if not longer.

The government is not performing and the clerks and bureaucrats of the civil service put the blame squarely on the politician Cabinet Ministers. Those elected to serve and who are failing to do so. I suppose in due course we will find out who is the Minister of Lands and publish same, for voters to make up their own mind in the next election. _____________________________________

BELIZE ECONOMY RUNNING ALONG AT FULL BORE!

In the meantime, DESPITE the bureaucrats and politicians, the economy of Belize is roaring along at full bore. What you could expect from our economy is doing as well as can be expected, within the range of normal business practices. That the nation is in dire financial straits seems to still be the problem between the BUREAUCRATS AND CIVIL SERVICE and the POLITICIANS. Each side in this war, for using the revenues, loans and borrowing capacity of the nation for their own benefit. So far, NO LEADERSHIP has come out of the UDP making our governing system workable and self sufficient. It is government by foreign loan borrowing as usual. The NATIONAL DEBT continues to rise and will soon rival that of the previous PUP administration. There is nothing wrong with the economy of Belize, only wrong with the political and bureaucratic civil service leadership. They are both too greedy and expensive. --------------------------------------------

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE – BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES TV PROGRAM – WAS A GOOD ONE THIS WEEK PAST !

The Chamber of Commerce Television Program called BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES was a good one this week, designated to the study of an apparent rise in violent crime in the port, mostly of Belize City.

The panel had a Phd, studying crime in Belize as an anthropologist and socialist, Commissioner of Police Jeffries was there representing Belize national political police, and a lady lawyer, aggressive and articulate. Moderated by the Chamber chairperson. ( don’t know her name )

The give and take was very interesting. Some startling points were made in the cross debate. The things that stuck in my mind mostly, was that THE MEDIA HOUSES OF BELIZE CITY were fueling the culture of VIOLENT CRIME, robberies and murders. The next item, it was argued by the Phd, that locking up known criminals awaiting for trials, for which the police knew they had no evidence was counterproductive. That the Chamber of Commerce itself had a sizable portion of their membership who were criminals themselves, or organized as small criminal gangs.

Probably the biggest item, which I had come to believe myself, was the MEDIA effect in socializing, culture developing and accepting an attitude among the populace that crime was alright and legitimate. Commissioner Jeffries pointed out that CRIME IS A BUSINESS. A certain percentage of young men, choose crime as a career and way of life. That impressionable young men are vying for their 15 minutes of FAME, on the news programs, be they talk shows, newspaper headlines, or television programs. He explained how they BRAG and compete in PEER PRESSURE for STATUS, about they were on the EVENING NEWS, or something they did beat the EVENING NEWS by another violent criminal, by being on the MORNING NEWS. The Phd pointed out that this cultural and socialism reinforcement shouldn’t happen. While CRIME IS NEWS for the sensationalist news shows, it should be self regulated and reported on the inside of the back page of a newspaper, using one line, a short paragraph in small print. Not in large print, sensationalist full page articles. Nor should the CRIMINALS be getting so much attention on the television and talk radio and tv shows. That in fact, the MEDIA are 45% responsible for the current atmosphere of VIOLENT CRIME CULTURE in the port of Belize City. It was pointed out that in England crime news was not allowed to be this way in reporting.

The court and police practice of locking up known criminals in Hattieville prison, only to eventually a year or two down the road, be set free by the court system, was counter productive. That this was re-inforcing their criminal behavior and that of their crime peers, in status.

Most startling was Commissioner Jeffries assertion that CRIME permeates the BUSINESS COMMUNITY as well, as WHITE COLLAR CRIME. He was referring to GST tax cheats, under invoicing to avoid government customs duties, as contributing to an overall culture in BELIZE, that crime is alright, it is WHITE COLLAR crime. He said therefore, that this widespread attitude of CRIME is acceptable, as a culture and social thing, permitted the violent young criminals to feel acceptable in this society in which they live. He said quite rightly, the CULTURE FORMATION of SOCIETY starts at the top with the CABINET, the PARLIAMENT, then the bureaucracy and down through society.

Most impressive was Commissioner Jeffries. He was articulate, well balanced, able to josh about his own peccadillos, with the business and academic section of society on the show, on even terms. He came across as the right man for the job and made me feel proud as a Belizean to have a MASTER HAND understanding the problems of society, culture and the political police effects on the job that he has to do. He was very good indeed and his understanding of the problems effecting society and his police force were deep, complex and well grasped. From the news media I had formed an entirely opposing viewpoint originally, and now I feel the MEDIA HOUSES are the problem, not Commissioner Jeffries.

One of the ideas I had developed was that there could be an ADVERTISING war time DIRIGIBLE floated some 500 feet above the center of Belize City, from a truck cable. Secretly a gyroscope observation TV camera could be filming on security tape, the actions on the streets below. In the case of violent crime, you could thus run the tape backward and follow the vehicle, bicycles or miscreants, home to their lair. Advertising would pay for it.

It was a good show and I thought it funny, if sad; that a large portion of the host CHAMBER OF COMMERCE membership got a slap in the face, when told that a large part of their membership were organized criminals.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Archeological and paleontology history is fascinating, as we humans try to identify how long we have been on planet Earth? Civilizations have come and gone, over and over again. We have geological evidence that goes way back in the millions even billions of years. In the Western Transvaal in South Africa, hundreds of metal spheres have been found in strata deposits that are found in deposits that are 2.8 billion years old. They come in two types. One ball is hollow with a white, spongy center and the other type of ball is bluish metal. Some have parallel rings carved around their circumferences. The metal is so hard, it cannot be scratched by steel. You can read about these in the fascinating book, The Hidden History of the Human Race, by Michael A. Cremo and Richard Thompson. There have been found human footprints frozen in time, that go back a 150 million years alongside that of dinosaurs. In Oklahoma, USA, a metal sphere was found embedded in coal from a mine, that was over 200 million years ago. The sphere had grooves around it. Alongside with a gold chain in similar strata of coal mining. This is pre Cambrian deposits. As far as we know, these things existed before the great extinction and impact that closed the Permian age. Supposedly before life even existed? A metal nail was found embedded in sandstone in England back in 1844, in which the sandstone layer was over 20 million years old. Back in 1852, blasting in Dorchester, England for a mine, uncovered a metal shaped vessel, decorated with images of flowers, inlaid in silver. How this can be found in stone that is millions of years old? One of these 2.8 billion year old artifacts is in the Klerksdorp Museum in South Africa, where it is on display, slowly rotating on it’s own axis, even though sealed in a display case. In the erosion of the sandstone of the Andes, on the Pacific coast, are over 20,000 egg shaped objects, in a museum in ICA, Peru. The ICA stones have carvings of dinosaurs, and show things like blood transfusions, cesarean sections, tumor excisions and even brain surgery and even have needle drawings at acupuncture sites on body drawings. The ICA stones were known about, by the early conquistadors, back in our sixteenth century, but belong to no known civilization of humans. They look like big eggs, but have two halves which can be opened. There are carvings in Dendera, Egypt that show people sitting under what seem to be cathode ray tubes used in television today, receiving some form of energy. A ship sunk back in 50 B.C. off the Greek island of Antikythera had an astronomical calculator that can be used to determine planetary movements. Some say the CRYSTAL SKULL of Belize is 50,000 years old, made by a technology we have no idea of. Others claim it was probably made by German trades people back at the turn of the 20th century. The Egyptians, of Saqqara, back in 200 B.C. had a model airplane made out of wood from the Sycamore tree, that had airplane wings with dihedral in the wings, that was not done in current times until about 50 years ago. It still flies.

A pre- Inca gold jewelry of an airplane exists in the Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia. I’ve seen it myself, with cockpit and pilot. There is a preserved limestone artifact that has a human footprint in it, done over a hundred million years ago discovered near St. Louis, back in 1822. Glen Rose, Texas, bulldozed a hill away, to reveal a limestone series of dinosaur prints along with human footprints underneath, in the geological strata going back a 150 million years. Back to the Cretaceous era. There are many artifacts found in deep coal mines in ancient strata. From entombed toads, to man made spoons, found in coal veins. There are queer cement cylinders found in New Caledonia in 1967, by L. Chevalier of the Museum of New Caledonia. They are very hard and have been carbon dated to before the rise of current civilization, back as far as 11,000 years ago. We can date towns and cities back to around 11,000 years ago in our current human history. Most recorded knowledge only goes back around 6000 years, except for stone carvings. It would seem to preserve history and pass the message into the future, we need to send our technological knowledge forward, engraved in granite rock of caves. Peking man has been found to be extremely old. Tools created in Europe of 30,000 years ago and cave drawings, have been surpassed by finds of fossils in ZAIRE over 90,000 years ago. Nowadays fossil research in Africa has pushed humans back fourteen million years ago. The invention of the ZODIAC, or precession of the stars was a marvelous feat, that had to be done over thousands of years of study. Our planetary long calendar is around 26,000 years, as we move back and forth in a 30 degree slant, across the plane of the GALACTIC CENTER. The calculations are possible, because the axis of the earth is at a slant, and as we circle in our solar system, the tilt of the earth measures the change in the Zodiac. While our solar system circles, our ICE AGES seem to cover one quarter of the back and forth movement of the longer 26,000 year calendar. The Earth movement across the plane of the galaxy takes 13,000 years before we start to return again. One quarter of a complete movement back and forth across the plane of the galaxy, might be explained by the circular rotation of the solar system itself, for our ice ages and shorter warm periods. Currently we are moving in the ZODIAC as we measure and record this long 26,000 year calendar, and are moving from the age of Pisces to Aquarius. We call this the precession of the equinox, which moves the pole slowly backward through the zodiac. The axial tilt of the earth, gives us our four seasons, from sunlight. The actual tilt drives the pole backward, very slowly through the calendar’s houses. For the North Pole to pass from one zodiac house to another in this slower calendar, takes 2,160 years. The longer cycle is 26,000 years and the really long cycle goes over a quarter million years. There is a roughly longer calendar that is around 250,000 years, in which a long cycle asteroid belt, threatens our planet and causes extinctions, by impacts. We know little about the circulation of the debris clouds of asteroids circling outside of our solar system. During the extinction of the PERMIAN age, there was not supposed to be any conscious creatures around. Which is denied by the evidence of isolated discoveries. The VEDIC literature of India, around Kashmir and what is now Pakistan, when the climate was different before this warming period, but under the shelter of the high Himalayas, with a temperate climate, during the last ICE AGE, prevented the worst of the ICE AGE weather. Geology and climate was different there, back then, as also in North Africa. There was an inner sea covering the Arabian deserts of today back in the last ice age, of North Africa. These people of India in this area of Pakistan, have cities excavated that are 10,000 years old, with modern sewage and plumbing, during what was a different climate. Their belief system is that humans have been on planet Earth for a very long time. They even talk of flying machines and technology in the VEDAS, that even now are being rediscovered in both Russia and the USA and still secret government research. Stones worked by humans have been found in Thenay, & Aurilac in France, Boncellesin Belgium and Suffolk, England that go back 5 million years old to the Miocene era. Some of the puzzles of ancient human civilizations have to do with the technology of construction using blocks of heavy stone, as much as from 750 tons to 1100 tons in weight. There is no known technology today that can move these stones and build places like the ancient platform of Baalbek in Lebananon, or the Black Pagoda in India, or the oldest Egyptian pyramids, or the great fortress Sacsayhuaman, high in the Peruvian Andes. Which since it had been built, has apparently gone higher in the sky, away from the location it was built by Andean uplifting of the tetonic plates. The nearest guesses are a massive climate change as the last ICE AGE quit and the warming period we now live in and is nearly over, happening some 10,450 years ago to 13,000 years ago. Floods and catastrophes have been recorded in what ancient literature there is. The Sphinx is presumed from before this time, back during the last ICE AGE. The OLD TESTAMENT was obviously written during the ZODIAC age of ARIES. Or at least copied from Sumerian tablets and earlier from the Book of Gilgamesh. Christ was born during the AGE of PISCES in the NEW Jewish Testament scrolls. The AGE of ARIES is recorded as the age of the RAM, whereas the era of Jesus was the era of the FISH. Interestingly enough, the earliest Egyptian pyramids showed the most sophisticated construction and the later ones of the Pharaohs were more primitive. Technology was being forgotten and lost as the climate changed and civilizations faded away and were replaced with huge 1000 year gaps between them, like the Maya civilizations in their 5000 or more year, two known calendars. Even during this current Mayan calendar due to finish in 2012, there have been three separate Mayan civilizations of organized society, with thousand year gaps between them.

The VEDAS speak of a war back during the end of the last ICE AGE in what is now Kashmir and Pakistan. Involving aliens, flying machines, ray like weapons and craft that could fly to the moon. The geological record show a flood catastrophe, but there have been a series of these. The SPHINX was apparently built before the FLOOD, which was more than 12,000 years ago. The Piri Reis maps, copies of ancient maps even then, describing the Earth and Antarctic land masses, mountains and coast lines, amaze scientists to this day. We have only now begun to confirm these ancient map copies by radar, which can see through the glacial ice covering the continent. Another remarkable thing is the earthquake of June 9, 1994 in Bolivia, which supposedly took place below the surface of the Earth some six hundred miles. Yet current thinking is that there is no solid rock down there to make an earthquake, as the core is liquid. Tiahuanaco is another mystery, as it has been moved away from quays and piers for water access by land uplifting. Current thinking is that the weather around the world will change in the next few hundred years, as fresh water into the North Atlantic disrupts the warm Gulf Stream. This among other changes should introduce the next long ICE AGE again. Estimates are about 450 years from now.

The human animal is a slow learner. Each generation make the same mistakes. Belize too has been plagued by Prime Minister's, who lack classical historical knowledge. Here is the governing mantra that each Prime Minister of Belize should have to swear, with his OATH OF OFFICE. Amateur politician or not!

What have we learned in 2,065 years?

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."-- Cicero - 55 BC

Monday, April 12, 2010

*** Prime Minister Dean Barrow, leader of a failed government. External observers say he has a self imposed straight jacket of bondage, of political lightweights in his party and his Cabinet, and that his training and experience cannot allow himself to step outside the BOX he finds himself in, to do well by his small nation of Belize. His management philosophy so far has been fair with a 70% report card, He still has two years and we wait to see if he can surmount his own myopic views on parliamentary colonial party politics and put them aside and put the nation of Belize first. To do this, he is going to have to submerge his own ego and reach out to others, outside of his political party. Most doubt that he is so capable?

The following article starts the debate on the failing reign of the UDP political party in power, led by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Barrow himself admits he is doing his BEST, but obviously as expressed in an earlier article here, his BEST is not good enough. From the content of this article sent to me via the Belize listserves debating forums, I suppose it must be printed somewhere? It is obvious that UDP Party Leader DEAN BARROW needs to use his last two years in office wisely if he wants to go down in history of putting our small nation on the path of self sufficiency. I notice that neither POLAND, or Switzerland has suffered in the recent world recession. So there must be the right answers and methods out there someplace on how to run a nation? There seems to be some keen and interested minds, both from the CHAMBER of COMMERCE, the PRIVATE SECTOR, this ALAN SLUSHER and perhaps Mr. GODFREY? I would think as a private citizen and voter, I would like the Prime Minister to reach outside of his civil service, his political party and organize a THINK TANK, to recommend ways of fixing our sad excuse for a failed colonial governing system. People express doubts that our Prime Minister has the maturity to step outside of his political box, to put the nation first? I would think he has, but we shall see over the next year? We need to fit the government into a roughly $330 million annual pocket book, which is something our small country can afford. ( see listserve article below, writer unknown ) _________________________________________________________________

The second most staggering admission from the upper echelons of the Barrow Governmentrecently has come from the mouth of Mr. Alan Slusher, a former Director of Economicsand Programming at the Caribbean Development Bank.

Slusher, now close advisor to the Minister of Finance, told the Belize Chamber ofCommerce (on two separate occasions) that the public service is too weak and incompetentto take the country's development agenda forward.

He cited the incapacity of the government to carry out capital III projects whichare partly funded by grants - free money.

This admission is very important. After a long sojourn in the Caribbean, Slusheris able to fix fresh - and obviously frank - eyeballs upon the mediocre machineryof government.

No doubt having observed many Caribbean governments in action, he is in a positionto compare our public service to theirs and doesn't like what he sees here.

The admission exposes that awful irony of governance so black and thick it could be pumped out of the ground like Belizean crude. Seventy cents out of every dollarof revenue earned by government goes to pay the salaries of public officers who, we are now told, are incapable of carrying out a development agenda.

Taken individually, there are many talented and hard-working public officers. Thepublic sector's most acute failing is the lack of motivated and competent managers. The serial and systemic neglect of the public service delivery system at the handsof politicians over the years has guaranteed its failing.

The public service system inherited from the British was supposedly structured toimmunize and stabilize the machinery of government from the vagaries of politiciansand incompetent ministers. Whether ministers were miscreants or simply misguided,government could go on.

If both the Cabinet and the public service are too weak to meaningfully advancethe country, then what is the point of government?

In a mature democracy, such a revelation from a figure as influential as Mr. Slusherwould have exploded like a political bombshell; instead it was a political dud.

The statement goes to the heart of governance because regardless of whether thePUP or the UDP holds the reins of power, their action plan will remain inert becauseof a weak public service.

There are two options open to addressing this fundamental problem. The long-term option is to rebuild the public service; putting in the necessary investment andstructures.

Implementing this option has two challenges. There is no money available for the required investment in the public service. And even if there were, there is absentthe necessary knowledge and skill to rebuild it. Any such rebuilding would haveto be outsourced, which segues into the second more attractive option.

Public sector outsourcing occurs when a government has a set of its functions or services previously undertaken in-house, performed by a private sector provider,presumably more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Ambulance services are currently provided by BERT, a non-governmententity. Its services are of a high quality, its staff trained to international standardsand it provides emergency airlifts within and outside of Belize.

Who would have thought that the management of the Belize central prison at Hattievillecould actually be outsourced to a non-government foundation? By all accounts, theKolbe Foundation is operating the prison more efficiently and humanely than before.Both BERT and Kolbe are able to get assistance from international charities becausethey are non-government entities.

The Meteorology Department outsources the delivery of its public service reports to a communications firm.

The litigation department of the Attorney General's ministry has largely been outsourcedto a private law firm. The PM justifies the higher cost by saying it represents value for money given the complexity of the cases and the money coming into governmentcoffers from the cases won.

Fine. But if that's the argument, why aren't public prosecutions outsourced? Wouldn'tit represent good value for money to have public confidence in the criminal justicesystem (which currently rests at 0) restored by improving conviction rates?

Clearly, outsourcing certain public services is recognized and used as a tool forincreasing efficiency and results. But it is currently employed in an ad hoc way.

There should be a conscious and focused rationalization of all those governmentservices that can be outsourced as a deliberate reform policy of government.

First on the list should be the services provided by municipal bodies. The smatteringof sub-standard inconsistent services provided by the Belize City Council couldbe done at a fraction of the cost of running City Hall, for example, by Cisco Construction.

The same could be done in the districts. This would eliminate the need for a Ministryof Local Government while simultaneously liberating us from the bane of having tolisten to the media- happy idiot savant, Philoughby.

There are a number of specialized social services NGOs like the Red Cross, Helpage,BCVI and BFLA, for example, that are serious, committed and professional. The socialservices offered by the Ministry of Human Development should be outsourced to an NGO administered by a group of these experts.

It should never be the function of the Ministry of Housing to build houses. Housingloans and grants when these are available should be administered by a state corporationlike the Development Finance Corporation.

Outsourcing the delivery of these and other public services would leave ministriesresponsible for policy, regulation and monitoring.

One minister could then realistically be expected to competently manage multiple portfolios, reducing the number of ministers and staff needed.

The greater the number of chiefs, the greater the number of Indians needed to servicethem and the higher the cost to the tax payer. There are 160,000 registered votersin Belize represented by 31 parliamentarians. The country does not need nor canit afford 31 parliamentarians.

Decentralization and "more representation" is a question of affordability. What'sthe point of having "representation" if nothing comes out of it?

Take the honourable representative for Belize Rural Central. He is not a Cabinet member, contributes nothing in parliament nor has any hopes of contributing anythingmeaningful to his constituency. There are more like him.

Given the choice, people would choose tangible results over empty representation.

Reducing the number of constituencies (especially in Belize City) as well as the number of ministries and converting more departments of government into statutorybodies could lead to less waste and greater efficiency in the delivery of public services.

The most staggering admission: the Commissioner of Police's blithe admission thata police officer had indeed been going around with a mask in a dangerous role playof "Cops as Robbers".

We are now told, on the authority of the PM, that there is a ring of these robbers.Should we bother testing the accuracy of Mr. Slusher's evaluation?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, April 10, 2010

** 18 year old, Giselle Auxillou,de la Fuente and friend, on water taxi, to home on Caye Caulker by the Great Barrier reef. Giselle on left with sunglasses, granddaughter of Ray Auxillou, her mother is Wendy Auxillou.** Some of our regional local beauty queens are really gorgeous! Makes me want to be young again.** Miss Guatemala visits Belize offshore barrier reef cayes.Belize Beauty Pageant held annually** Tina loves boats and is a DIVE MASTER as well as other sundry assorted skills.** Tina Auxillou of Caye Caulker. Tourist hostel pioneer in Belize and entrepreneur. Here she is co-hosting, or MC of a local beauty pageant. She also has two houses she is fixing up across the Macal River here in a Belize Alps, foothills, housing subdivision.

Friday, April 9, 2010

*** The history of Belize will record, and his gravestone will be engraved Here lies former Prime Minister Dean Barrow, BELOVED OF HIS PEOPLE - BUT HIS BEST WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Of course he still has two years in his term, to change that epitaph?

PRIME MINISTER DEAN BARROW, THE BEST BELIZE CAN PRODUCE, BUT STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

There have been a lot of debates on local television about the state of the economy and country of Belize. There are nowadays a lot of smart intellectual and very articulate people in Belize. Higher education has done wonderful things in that realm over the last 25 years. From the OPPOSITION PUP party hack, Michael Reid ,I get criticism over the current REPORT CARD rating of 70 % of the UDP government in power. He disagrees of course, which is his right. It is sort of wonderful to be able to freely disagree in Belize these days. There is so much discussion of every subject under the sun. Not like Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, or Venezuela. The days of PM George Price political party persecution are gone apparently. Hopefully forever? That said; the discussions by the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Perspectives forum television show and the often shown video clip, of our Prime Minister Dean Barrow, in the Parliament house sitting last week, saying he is doing the best he can and will continue to offer his best. I’m reminded of my own school report cards when a youngster. In which the teacher would write in the comments columns. Raymond has ability, but fails to reach his potential. In this case the Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize could get the same comments on his 70% report card. The 70% rating is a good score. The fly in the ointment is that it was not done by “good management and organization”. The problem is; that the 107% National Debt to GDP ratio, which tells us volumes of the problems facing the country and that BARROW’s best, is not good enough. I’m not going to argue about the borrowing of his first two years in office just past. Given political party priorities, his choices of loan borrowing to stimulate the economy and repair infra-structure, within the government bureaucratic apparatus he inherited, might indeed be the best a post colonial educated Caribbean lawyer can do. I do however; like many a school principal, want sometimes, to pick him up by the scruff of his neck, or by his ears and shake him and say YOU CAN DO BETTER! Considering he is the BEST of the BEST we have in Belize. There is nobody on the horizon to even replace him. Unfortunately, out of that 107% Debt to GDP ratio, and the 76% debt ratio he inherited and the 3% he was allowed by EU rules in additional debt for his first two years in office. There is currently 28% of the 2009 107% Debt to GDP ratio that he has incurred, that says DEAN BARROW as Prime Minister is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Since he is the best we have in the country. He himself cried out in despair in the House Sitting that he is doing the BEST HE CAN. What do we as citizens do? Corporal punishment is being outlawed. You can’t just take the Prime Minister and put him over a desk and whip his backside with a thin bamboo cane. Some other way has to be found, to make the man realize his potential and work at it. We the country of Belize and citizens need to find ways to motivate his government. How is the question? The Chamber of Commerce came up with a couple of good ideas. Something about Barbados institutionalizing POLICY MAKING, with a mix of private sector and politicians perspectives and needs. Certainly the idea of an elected experiment for a SHERIFF in the port town seems worthwhile to try and change our paradigms of governing, which have failed us and continue to fail us, as far out into the future we can forsee, for several generations to come. I mistrust the Chamber of Commerce. They are importer merchandise businessmen viewpoint dominated. I don’t like that, such dominance is not good for Belize as our colonial history has shown. It is obvious to even the most uneducated campesino in rural parts, that we need a new paradigm of governing and controlling size and cost and efficient delivery of bureaucratic services. Would caning PM BARROW over a school desk improve his performance? How do you motivate somebody, or a political party, to change the way we operate as a political system, and bureaucratic governing system, into a self sufficient model? Something we can afford! GREATER TAXATION is not the answer obviously. What is missing in our PM Barrow’s psychological makeup and education, that makes him balk at changing our paradigms? We know he means well, but his BEST is not good enough, the statistics show. Nor is he working to his maximum potential obviously. So how do we improve our governing model?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

MELVIN HULSE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A 5% GAIN ON THE UDP GOVERNMENT REPORT CARD

Great program on TV I saw of the public works being done in Melvin Hulse's WEST STANN CREEK constituency. Obviously the guy is working for his voters. New roads, streets, culverts. Part of this is the better division of government monies, by district, than the old PUP style of favoritism.

I would more be able to measure the effectiveness of the program of district, or constituency funds being spent properly and effectively, if we could get some comparable news out of the PUP constituencies?

Business Perspectives TV PROGRAM this week, very constructive. Good program this week, with solutions and ideas for the future course of events.

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES by the Chamber of Commerce of Belize City

Saw the program, again by chance while rolling through the channels last night.

Some interesting callers phoned into the program. One subject that came up was the police and how the living allowance for a constable was too low. Forget the amount, but it sure is. In today’s Belize, it would need $600 for rent in towns, $100 for electricity, $50 for water, for family of 2 kids, and $100 for butane. Most policemen here with families that take houses that are abandoned, or vandalized camp out. When they can sucker somebody to rent them, they leave behind oodles of damage, and hundreds of dollars in utilities when they get transferred. Most of them, cook over wood fires in the back yards. In reference I go back to the 1950’s in Western Canada. I remember when in British Columbia, that boarding houses back then, slept 3 to 5 people wearing long johns in a bed in one room and you ate communally. I met a couple of Royal Canadian Mountain Police and I remember they had to sign a paper that said they could not get married for five years. They used to get transferred just like constables in Belize. Population of Canada at that time was about 4.5 million people. The RCMP looked splendid in those red jacket uniforms and left bastard children all over CANADA, as the girls went crazy over them. Don’t know how it is now, but obviously Belize has to switch to town and village based permanent police forces that can establish homes and invest in the community. This means an elected Sheriff system on a two year basis. With a permanent force of civil service accredited and tested police. We have to change and the CHAMBER program touched on it a bit seeking answers to our policing situation that does not work in Belize. Will the UDP show the leadership to get to it? That is the question?

The problem brought up of how each new elected government of amateurs make a balls up of things when they come into office. Through lack of experience. It was pointed out by one panel member; that BARBADOS a few years ago, institutionalized POLICY MAKING, between the CABINET and STAKEHOLDERS in the PRIVATE SECTOR. Have no idea how it works, but we need something like that for sure. Each new government makes a mess of things. Be worth investigating. We can take the UDP for instance. They came into office with the premeditated plan to borrow their way into the good graces of the public. They inherited a 76 % to GDP ratio which is bad, but went ahead with their plans to BORROW and consequently after two years, we now have a debt of 107% to GDP ratio, which they say will increase to over 110% by the end of 2010. Even spider monkeys know this is unsustainable. This is amateur night and the idea of a sobering effect of an institutionalized process to CABINET POLICY MAKING, through involving the PRIVATE SECTOR like BARBADOS is an intriguing one. The speaker said it was more successful after some disaster they experienced over there in BARBADOS. At the moment the UDP is responsible for a 31% increase in the national debt. Never mind that a lot of infra-structure needed doing. As true as it is, that is no excuse for poor management. If we assume 3 % of that 31 %, was allowable debt by the UDP in the last two years. Since they inherited 76% of the debt. It means that 28% of the NATIONAL DEBT OF BELIZE today by the UDP in the last two years, is pure amateur incompetence and poor management at the political party level. No matter how many excuses you make or rationalizations, or finger pointing. 28% of the national debt is the UDP fault and incompetence due to amateurism, or poor leadership. The statistics tell the true story.Obviously, the institutionalized POLICY MAKING involving the Private Sectors would put a rein on an expanding government and the associated costs. We need something like that. Lets look at BARBADOS and see if what they are doing is working and can be used in Belize?

Senator Hulse came off the wall, being against food self sustainability. In some measure he has a point, but the food equation is more complex than we got from his diatribe. It would be worth a program of itself, as he suggested. There are a lot of varieties of food imported, we can replace by local manufacture. Plus as the population grows, more diversity in food products is needed. The situation is more complex than his simplistic diatribe. I think he is thinking of diets of olden days in his youth? It’s not the same anymore as 40 years ago. True, much of what we do now needs to be orientated to exporting.

Interesting comment on the middle men coming from Guatemala buying cattle and the suggestion by one caller that we simply sell and deliver our own cattle to the butchers in Guatemala? Needs a follow up, by some entrepreneur businessman.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The uninitiated might ask; why trade derivatives and futures in general out of Belize? Mostly because of the climate. It is comfortable all year around. Most of the country is tranquil and peaceful. Infra-structure is slowly coming along. You can get electricity, water and garbage pickup, in most towns and villages of any size. The roads and streets are rough though. The internet is probably the only drawback. Unless you are in one of the towns, it is difficult to get reliable and fast internet required of the modern communications era. Still, there are moves afoot by a growing competition of internet providers to bring internet and better bandwidth and speeds. You can work with the slow dial up for instance that I'm using. Not for everything, but mostly you can, in a rough sort of way. Why trade derivatives at all out of Belize? Well it is the game itself that is the challenge. A person with $10,000 usa, trading derivatives, can earn as much as a person with a $1 1/2 million in the bank on CD interest rates these days. It takes a year of two of learning to do it properly. Nowadays there are all kinds of web based brokerage training free money trading services to practice on. Not like 20 years ago. The miracle that was SINGAPORE as a trading center hasn't quite reached Belize yet, but it sure is coming. There are all kinds of niche markets to speculate in. My own is the CASH INDICES using options. But there are many, many choices. Too many sometimes, it leaves your head spinning. _______________________________________

Yep, Ray, I'd say the slow and expensive internet connections in Belize are a real disadvantage to Belize becoming a trading center!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The AVERAGE download speed in Singapore is over 7 Mb/s, maybe 20 times faster than Belize. Singapore is among the top five countries in the world in broadband penetration, whereas Belize is near the bottom. And broadband internet starts at under US$20 a month.

--Lan Sluder

Hmmmmmnnn! I was more thinking in terms of ability to move currency in different types of foreign exchange. Though most brokerages would be located outside of Belize, but still the business would offer job employment and if traders lived here, they would be bringing some money back to this country of Belize to invest and just spend? ______________________________

Just like we are friends with the totalitarian dictatorship of Cuba under the CASTRO BROTHERS regime. Belize is expected to stay friends with the NEW CONSOLIDATED TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIP OF VENEZUELA OF EMPEROR, HUGO CHAVEZ. Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and with the new ARMADA of weapons at the disposal of the totalitarian former STALINIST style method of dictatorship in Venezuela, the evidence indicates that by the end of this year, Hugo Chavez will have solidified his power in Venezuela. Using the pretext of violence and controls, due to expected electrical power shortages, the government of Hugo Chavez, Emperor supreme of about 5 or 6 countries now in Latin America and the Caribbean, is even now removing leading opposition opponents and throwing them in jail. With 40,000 Cubans controlling all major government functions and the native Venezuelans excluded, this year is expected to be the big year in consolidating the totatitarian dictatorship. You will know the plan is completed, once the Cuban model of food controls, ration food coupons and seizure of all private property by the government is over. Venezuelans the poorer ones anyway, will be surprised to find out that, as poor as they are, they can be made poorer still, when their homes and meager possessions are seized by the new government. By then of course it will be too late. There should be a major purge of Venezuelan bureaucrats within the Chavez government apparatus, before 2011, which will continue through 2012, until the dictatorship has complete control. No one, can say Chavez didn't warn them. For he did, loud and often. First things first, and the solidifying of his control within Venezuela is top priority. After that, the military machine he is building, is intent on preparing for some form of invasion by the USA. With OIL as his major world contribution, it is expected there will be some kind of fuss in the outside world, once the dictatorship in consolidated. For CHAVEZ has shown already, his willingness to use OIL as a weapon. Despite this, Belize is expected to maintain a relationship on good terms, if limited in scope, with Venezuela. We have too many problems politically at home, to be concerned about the machinations of an ego maniac running Venezuela. That's their problem? We can't run our own country properly, in a financially self sustainable modest model, to spend time worrying about Venezuela.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Wheels within wheels! Revolution within a revolution, within a revolutions in Venezuela!TO THE HIT SONG --- "GOODBYE VENEZUELA! A view of the final throes of Venezuela this year by the USA!

By Martin Arostegui Special To The Washington Times

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia | Cuba's communist government has deployed thousands of technical and military advisers to Venezuela to bolster the regime of leftist President Hugo Chavez, as that country faces energy shortages and increased repression against opposition political leaders.

A senior Cuban security official and former interior minister, Gen. Ramiro Valdez, arrived in Caracas, Venezuela, in February to take charge of a Cuban government mission that over the past several years has grown to an estimated 40,000 advisers and aid workers, including a large contingent of Cuban military personnel.

The advisers include intelligence and security officers, political advisers and medical personnel.

According to Venezuelan military analysts and U.S. intelligence reports, Venezuelan officials have said that the Cubans' main task is to help resolve the energy crisis, which has resulted in rolling blackouts in parts of the country.

"They have great expertise in matters of saving electricity and electrical efficiency," Venezuelan Energy Minister Ali Rodriguez said of the Cuban personnel.

Mr. Chavez's opponents fear the Cuban advisers are behind the repressive measures taken by the government to secure a victory for Mr. Chavez in congressional elections scheduled for September.

"Cuba's expertise is in control, and that's what Chavez needs right now, so that's what the Cubans are providing," said Michael Shifter, director of Inter-American Dialogue, a policy center in Washington. "The Venezuelan government is worried about losing control."

Several prominent opposition leaders have been arrested over the past month. They include Gov. Alvarez Paz of the oil-rich state of Zulia and Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the last surviving independent newschannel, Globovision.

Mr. Chavez has openly praised the thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers who manage his health and educational programs. But he has remained largely silent about Cuban security and military advisers who virtually run key sections of his government and armed forces.

"There are indications that agents of the Cuban G-2 [military intelligence] are operating openly at all the main military installations, principally the Ministry of Defense, the strategic operations command, the joint chiefs of staff headquarters, command centers of the army, navy, air force and national guard, as well as the military intelligence directorate" and the internal security service, said retired Brig. Gen. Francisco Uson, who served as defense planning director and briefly held the post of finance minister in Mr. Chavez's government.

A U.S. intelligence official said that Cuban intelligence officers also have been planted throughout Venezuela's Foreign Ministry and that Venezuelan ambassadors posted overseas have been identified as Cuban intelligence officers.

Intelligence officers in Colombia, who have kept a close eye on Venezuela because of guerrilla activity at the borders and constant threats from Mr. Chavez to wage war on Colombia's U.S.-backed government, have said that Cuba has established a "parallel chain of command" within the military.

A Colombian security analyst who recently visited Venezuela told The Washington Times that Cuban advisers have been operating at the "tactical unit level."

"Their recommendations are generally supported by the high command and considered orders," the analyst said.

This specialist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Cuban advisers decide on unit deployments and recommend promotions through a newly established system that allows sergeants to assume the rank of colonel by "technical merit."

The Cubans also report any suspected disloyalty among officers to senior advisers at Venezuela's command centers. Gen. Uson said that Cubans serving with battalions usually are disguised as "sporting instructors."

"There is much ill feeling about the presence of these agents, but my comrades in arms generally show genuflection and passivity towards these individuals," Gen. Uson said.

Cuban teams also maintain and operate much of the $4 billion worth of advanced military hardware that Venezuela recently acquired from Russia, including radar-guided anti-aircraft systems, Su-30 multipurpose fighter jets, Kilo-class submarines, Mi-24 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, as well as tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Mr. Chavez's close relationship with Cuba was evident as far back as the mid-1990s, when Fidel Castro invited him for a hero's welcome in Havana following Mr. Chavez's imprisonment after he led a 1992 failed coup against the government of President Carlos Andres Perez.

After Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro signed a series of bilateral agreements in 2003, thousands more Cubans poured into Venezuela to manage a range of government services, including telecommunications, the issuing of identity documents, police training and the business registry.

A national guard officer, Brig. Gen. Marco Ferreira, who headed a key immigration department, told The Times that he quit his job at the time because he was "tired of Cubans looking over my shoulder."

Venezuela's armed forces were restructured along Cuban's totalitarian model through constitutional changes introduced in 2005, when Mr. Chavez also announced the formation of a National Bolivarian Militia to operate under his direct political control.

Gen. Raul Baduel resigned as defense minister in 2007 as a result of the changes and became a leading critic of Mr. Chavez until he was imprisoned last year.

Analysts say the militia has fallen short of Mr. Chavez's stated goal of mobilizing 1 million armed members by 2010. Its strength is estimated at about 300,000 men and women, who are highly indoctrinated and receive all aspects of infantry training, including the use of 120 mm mortars, according to intelligence reports.

Colombia intelligence sources say militia leaders run local "communal councils" that are in charge of distributing gasoline supplies to many towns and communities, mainly in rural areas. Militia units also manage security at major oil energy installations.

There are some indications that Cuba's military model is being applied in other Latin American nations that have been influenced by Mr. Chavez. Bolivian President Evo Morales recently ordered his army to adopt the Cuban military slogan of "Homeland or death; we will triumph."

Monday, April 5, 2010

66 feet back from the high tide mark, is public reserve and can be used by anyone in Belize. -------------------------------------

Following is my understanding of the erosion, accretion and the 66 foot reserve based on reading the law, and many discussions with people in the Lands Department and private attorneys.

Erosion is irrelevant, it’s the high tide line that starts the measurement of land, wherever that might be, and whether or not land is encumbered by a 66 foot reserve. As in many States in the US, if you accrete you win, if you erode, you lose. Unfortunately, that has created a permissive attitude toward the seabed because who in government wants to seem heartless and deny a permit to fill to someone who has lost most of his or her property through erosion?

The 66’ reserve is an easement over property owned by someone – it doesn’t define where property starts or ends unless the reserve is specifically excluded from property ownership by a survey. Also, some property is subjected to a 66’ reserve by law – the National Lands Act and its predecessors. According to the National Lands Act, only specific lands are legislatively subject to the reserve, including rural lands and those outside towns and cities. If you’re in one of the areas made subject to the reserve by legislation, I’m told that what your survey says is irrelevant, you property is still encumbered by the reserve. If you live elsewhere, then your survey rules. However, most land will be subject to the reserve by survey since that was the law of the land under British rule, when most original surveys of water frontage property were done in this country. And, the British take the reserve seriously – Australia tried to do away with it in the 1800s and Queen Victoria promptly slapped their hands and sent British civil servants to make sure it was enforced.

If property is encumbered by the 66’ reserve, the area of the reserve moves with the erosion or accretion. But, as with losing land through erosion, the movement of water creates problems – a land owner’s house might end up being in the middle or at the high tide line edge of the 66 foot reserve. In these cases, owners have frequently applied for government permission to fill in their eroded land so that the improvements on the land are not within the reserve. Again, who in government wants to seem heartless and deny a permit to fill under these circumstances. (Or, in the case where the 66’ reserve essentially takes up an entire caye.) So, as permits to dredge and fill for erosion continued to be given and the reserve on small cayes essentially ignored, the doctrine of the 66’ reserve became eroded in the public mind, but it’s still the law of almost all of the land in Belize.

The above applies to rivers, streams, lagoons and the cayes as well as the Sea. However, what is usually not discussed is what can be done on the 66 foot reserve. The 66’ reserve is derived from British law, and there, the 66’ foot reserve can be used for passage, but not necessarily beach barbecues, parties, etc. You can walk on it to get from one place to another, but that’s pretty much it. However, some countries have greatly expanded the use of the 66’ reserve in connection with the public purpose doctrine – India, Australia and many States in the US, so much so that the 66’ foot reserve is almost sacred ground. This issue apparently has never been litigated in Belize, so we have no definition of what the reserve may be used for here. So, if Belize follows the strict British interpretation, even if an entire caye is encumbered by the 66’ foot reserve, and owner could keep you off the land because you would have no reason to need to use the reserve for passage from one place to another.

But, even if your property isn’t subject to the 66’ reserve, you still can’t own the seabed (and seabed means any land underwater, whether it be in the Caribbean, a lagoon, river or stream). This is a completely separate issue from the 66’ foot reserve, although it often runs up against when survey lines are drawn. The property owners with stakes out in the water have surveyors with questionable ethics. In Belize, no one owns the seabed – it belongs to the government who must hold it in trust for the interests of the public. The government may allow its use, but only for a public purpose –or that’s what the law says, anyway. But, who cares about the law in Belize? The government certainly doesn’t, it seems.

The cayes and the coastline (of the sea, rivers, streams, lagoons) are subject to the doctrine of shelter in an emergency (literally, any port in a storm), but I can’t remember the legal name of the doctrine right now – maybe Wendy can. Basically, if you get stuck at sea (or in the water anywhere), caught in a storm, or have boat problems – you’re allowed to land on anyone’s property, regardless of whether it’s public or private, above or below the high tide line, encumbered or not encumbered by a reserve, whatever.

On 4/5/2010 5:32:55 AM, Kobuh (bzekobuh-list@yahoo.com) wrote:> So far no one has mentioned Erosion, in many cases that 66 feet has gone.> It is probably also a factor where those in the know have been able to get> survey stakes placed out in the water basically resulting in the public> access piece being underwater .Bze Kobuh,> The monkeys are running the zoo>